Is NYU College of Arts and Sciences a good fit for me?

<p>Please excuse my narcissism.</p>

<p>I go to school in the Bronx but live in CT. I love New York City passionately. I want to study Creative Writing and political science. I enjoy a good hippie/hipster/alternative culture at any school, but was turned off by the extreme level of inwardness I found with the students at Wesleyan. I would like to go to college where students are genuinely engaged with their studies and will take stimulating/intellectual discussions outside of the classrooms. I appreciate diversity and even though I lean left politically, I am somewhat frustrated with an intense level of political correctness to the point where it becomes discriminatory.</p>

<p>Would I like NYU?</p>

<p>Based on what you said, it’s difficult to say whether you’d be happy here.
Socially I think you’re a perfect fit for NYU. I’m not sure what you mean by “inwardness,” but if you mean pretentiousness and exclusivity, I think you’d be pleasantly surprised that I haven’t noticed much of that here. People are pretty open, cool and well-dressed. Like any place there are insufferable, cooler-than-though hipster snobs, but the school’s just so big that those people are hard to find unless you’re looking for them.</p>

<p>Academically it’s a bit harder to say. There are a lot of people here who take what they study very seriously, especially in niche departments like Classics or Computer Science. My friend took a Latin class last semester and said that the class was filled with mostly Classics majors who loved to talk about Classics. NYU, as I’m sure you know, also has really great professional and arts programs. My suitemate in fact, is a Music Performance major in Steinhardt and spends hours talking about it with her friends. That being said, she doesn’t read very often and we don’t have a lot to talk about academically. I’m not saying that people in liberal arts programs aren’t intellectual or academic, it’s more that often they’re very engaged with the classes in their major or program which may not overlap with yours. Stern and Tisch especially are very, very intense and their students seem to only have time in their schedules for classes in their programs (except the odd MAP requirement). I visited an LAC when I was deciding what college to go to and its atmosphere seemed more along the lines of what you were describing.</p>

<p>But you also said you seek diversity and NYU is actually quite ideologically diverse. As a hardcore liberal arts student pursing a degree in a very impractical subject some of the best conversations I’ve had here have been with a Finance major from Stern. The diversity of interest really does change your perspective on things if you let it.</p>

<p>All this being said, candidly I’m not very happy here. I often wish I had gone to that LAC. The people are good, the academics are good (almost every professor I’ve ever had has been very accessible, down-to-earth and good to talk to), but frankly I haven’t met too many people who will take an intellectually stimulating conversation outside of class. Or even inside class. The classes I’ve taken with upperclassmen have been better but I don’t feel like the atmosphere is extremely academic. Students on the whole seem smart, driven but professional minded, not academic minded.</p>

<p>umm nyu is a really big school =/!!!</p>

<p>some people like my roommate is having problems making friends, becuase the school is so big ~ interactive not so much~ but it all depends on what classes u chose though. I am photo major at tisch ~ and i am in honour classes at cas ~ so all my classes r fairly small 12~30 ppl? so all my classes r interactive ~ </p>

<p>but like other colleges… most of nyu’s classes r huge… LOL my roommate and her friend were in the same class… and didnt even realize until LOL mid of the semester </p>

<p>however nyu’s lsp program or study abroad is very interactive ~ !! my bf is there for the lsp program at Florence this year and he lives with all his classmates that he sees everyday ~! they are all pretty tight!!But at the nyc campus not so much!~</p>

<p>Have to agree that the school isn’t all that diverse politically. Most people lean left and think that’s the only acceptable way to lean. But other than that there are so many freakin people on the “campus” that you’re bound to find people who interest you. I actually saw sort of a relevant post on this site gottalovewsq.com the other day. The one about a birthday dinner blah blah blah. Personally all my friends are pre-med because i do nothing but study with these people 12 hours a day. But i can see how that’d be true for others who make the effort ot get to know people.</p>